3D modeling, texturing, and effects

Spline workflows - Create and animate geometry in several intuitive ways with new and enhanced spline tools.Data Channel Modifier - Extract information directly from a model, which you can use to help inform other types of modifications.

Blended Box Map - Morph visible seams by blending as many as six materials applied to an object.

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Change Log

What's New in 3ds Max 2019.3

Interactive ActiveShade Viewport:

With the new improvements to ActiveShade, you can now interact and render simultaneously in the same viewport.
The ActiveShade viewport mode extends your rendering workflow so you can now see the final result of your adjustments as you make them.

Revit Version Compatibility:

You no longer need to upgrade your file when importing a Revit 2018 file, provided you have 3ds Max 2018 and Revit Interoperability for 3ds Max installed.

Enhancements and Changes

Alembic interoperability with Maya Alembic support continues with improved interoperability with Autodesk Maya software. Custom Attributes from Maya are grouped to support attributes on transforms and shapes, and vertex color sets are now compatible with Maya import and export.

OSL Map (Open Shading Language) Improvements to the OSL source editor include improved bracket highlighting, syntax highlighting, and better docking ability. The viewport has also been enhanced to support OSL features such as node properties and improved Bump map support.

Revit Import Importing Autodesk Revit files is now twice as fast as before (depending on the dataset), lights imported from Revit (via FBX/RVT) now work and render correctly, and the Import dialog has been improved so it is easier to understand and use.

General improvements Over 100 existing issues have been fixed, many of which were originally submitted by the 3ds Max user community. See the Release Notes for details on customer-facing issues. Thank you for your input!

Fixed Issues in 3ds Max 2019.3 Update

MAXX:Alembic

Fixed an issue with AlembicExport where Material IDs would not export if all Material IDs for an object were the same. MAXX-46831

Custom attributes now import and export compatible with Maya. MAXX-45522

Fixed vertex colors that were incompatible with Maya and other DCCs. MAXX-45511

Fluids: Fixed a crash when clicking the Solver menu in a scene with no Fluids objects. MAXX-45601

Fluids MAXScript commands were not updating the UI. MAXX-45518

When loading the cache, the Cancel button now works all the time. MAXX-45055

MAXX:Interop

Fixed an issue where some large exports (>20k poly count) to Collada would fail. MAXX-46543

Fixed an issue where non-reflective Autodesk materials converted to physical materials using the Scene Converter were turned into mirrors. MAXX-46417

Fixed multiple issues with lights, which were causing incorrect renderings in 3ds Max. The first was resulting in grossly over-scaled light source objects. The second was resulting in a black filter being applied to all light sources. MAXX-44182

Fixed an issue where some lights imported from Revit via FBX were rotated 90 degrees. MAXX-38734

Fixed an issue where some lights (rectangular and linear) imported from a Revit file were rotated 90 degrees. MAXX-38508

MAXX:MAXScript

Improved robustness of handling group members, to make sure they can exist only as part of groups. MAXX-46307

Improvements were made to the OSL Editor, improving workflow and correcting some missing and incorrect syntax highlighting, as well as some cosmetic fixes to the "default shader" pre-populating the OSL

Map. MAXX-45476

The Candy shader no longer renders the plane Z=0 differently from a nonzero Z, causing artifacts on flat surfaces. However, it may now appear slightly different. MAXX-44914

When an OSL map is assigned to the bump slot of a physical material and any value of bump is less than 1, the object will appear almost transparent. MAXX-41312

When using an OSL Map, it would cause network rendering errors. MAXX-45619

MAXX:SDK

Fixed a problem where arrays of C++ objects (template \ class Array) with trivial constructors didn't have their elements initialized. For example, creating an array of integers with a default value of 0 would leave the elements of the array un-initialized. MAXX-45616

MAXX:ViewportsMaterials
Bump mapping in the viewport was not working with OSL maps with multiple outputs. This and various other bump mapping problems caused various artifacts in the viewports. MAXX-44227

What's new in 3ds Max 2019.2

Fluids update

The new Fluid Loader is an object that makes it easy to load and manipulate fluid simulation data. With the Fluids Loader, users can load cached fluid simulations, adjust the transform of the sim, offset the playback, assign materials and render the sim.

We added support for rendering fluids data channels such as Vorticity, Density, Age, etc. with Arnold

You can adjust the meshing parameters for liquid and foam of a loader and the render settings such as data channels mentioned above. Even reuse simulations and control each playback independently.

When working with complex simulations, you may have many emitters, colliders, and motion fields. This can make iterating on fluid simulations cumbersome, so we have added the ability to disable and enable emitters, colliders, motion fields, etc. for faster, more finely controlled sims.

Open standards Alembic & OSL Improvements
Alembic support has been updated to version 1.7.5, with this comes with improvements to export and speed.

Alembic UV export is now compatible with Maya by default

Support for instances allows files to be much smaller while maintaining complexity and can dramatically improve export speed.

We have included a better tree-view arrangement and searching in the Alembic Inspector Window.

The OSL editor now displays line numbers.

In the OSL editor, the “Compile” shortcut is changed from Ctrl+S to F7, and Ctrl+S is now the much more sensible “Save”.

The OSL editor now highlights matching brackets, e.g. if the cursor is on a left parenthesis, the matching right parenthesis is highlighted.

Shade enhancements include a new Cell Noise shader and new Sheen function in the Standard Surface shader to render cloth-like microfiber materials or the peach fuzz.

RGB clamping in clamp shader can now be configured to either a scalar or color mode.

Edge detection can be controlled in Toon Shader using the STRING type user data, toon_id.

The stability and usability of the high-quality Noice denoiser has been improved.

GPU memory consumption of the fast NVIDIA OptiX denoiser has been greatly reduced.

New Subscription Benefits - Autodesk Drive
Autodesk Drive is a cloud storage solution that allows you to securely store, preview, and share your 2D and 3D design data. It supports 60+ types of Autodesk and 3rd party files for viewing and organizing, preserving your local storage where you only download when you need to. More on Autodesk Drive Here

Community Updates
Autodesk is committed to responding quickly to 3ds Max user feedback. That’s why this release includes over 70 fixes, many of which were submitted by the 3ds Max user community at 3dsmaxfeedback.autodesk.com.

Track View and Scene Explorer panels are now windowed again.

Data Channel can now output vertex alpha.

Projects workflow, users can have more than 60 paths associated with a project.

New 3ds Max security tools set offer protection against the CRP and ALC 3rd party scripts.

Using a short MaxScript command (FBXExportSetParam “ExportAnimationOnly” true) allows you to export FBX animation data without needing to include geometry.

Bringing your ideas to life in 3ds Max 2019.1 Update

We are committed to responding quickly to 3ds Max user feedback. That’s why this release includes over 80 fixes, some of which were submitted by you – the 3ds Max user community – at 3dsmaxfeedback.autodesk.com.

A few highlights:

Archiving and scene file compression now supports large data sets (greater than 2GB)

With a new Shape Boolean object, users can perform Boolean operations parametrically on geometry created around splines.

Edit scenes directly in VR with 3ds Max Interactive.

More efficient collaboration

Sharing assets with reviewers and collaborators from 3ds Max is now simpler than ever: Assets can be shared to the online Autodesk Viewer directly from the 3ds Max interface, so reviewers don't need to install extra software or sign in to view the content.

Reviewers can view, markup, and take screenshots of content directly in-browser, and feedback can be reviewed from within 3ds Max.

Also in 3ds Max 2019

Autodesk is committed to responding quickly to 3ds Max user feedback. That’s why this release includes over 150 fixes, many that were submitted by the 3ds Max user community.
3ds Max 2019 also incorporates refinements to previously added features, including Max Fluids, VR workflows in 3ds Max Interactive, Max Batch, and Spline Tools.

The Deployer supports bundling a project in a self-extracting zip file instead of creating an installer when you use the Deployer panel to create a standalone package of your project for Windows. See the Self Extracting Zip option in Package the project for Windows.

Updated Project Manager.

Scripters and programmers can now debug a project’s Lua code from the Visual Studio Code editor.

Complete 3ds Max Interactive documentation is now available within the 3ds Max Help.

Note: If you have existing projects created in previous versions of 3ds Max Interactive, refer to the Update requirements.

Fluid Simulation updates:

With the new Liquid Parameter Presets, you can quickly simulate such standard fluids as milk, honey, blood, and chocolate, as well as various types of oil. You can also use these presets as a starting point for your own custom simulations.

Use the Initial State feature to start a new simulation based off of the state of an existing simulation on a particular frame. This is useful when you want a fluid to be in full flow at the start of the simulation, for example when creating a waterfall or an open faucet.

You can now truncate a simulation, deleting all simulation files after a specified frame. Use this feature to further fine-tune a simulation while preserving earlier results.

With UV Projection, you can set a map channel to project UVs directly onto the liquid volume.

You can now export .prt files for liquid and/or foam directly from the context menu of a selected solver.

3ds Max Batch updates:

3ds Max Batch is now a stand-alone executable with many new options. See 3ds Max Batch for more information. Improvements include:

You can now pass the string and numeric data to the executing script from the command-line using the new -mxsString and -mxsValue arguments.

3ds Max Batch
3ds Max Batch allows you to perform MAXScript or Python automation in the background, as a standalone process or in parallel with the desktop application.
3ds Max Batch can be deployed on the cloud.

Freehand Spline
The Freehand Spline allows you to create hand-drawn splines directly in the viewport.

Spline Influence Modifier
The Spline Influence Modifier allows you to create a soft selection of spline knots based on their proximity to specified objects.

Spline Mirror Modifier
The Spline Mirror Modifier allows you to easily duplicate a spline along a specified axis.
Duplicates any present normals.

Spline Morph Modifier
The Spline Morph Modifier allows you to blend between different shapes.
Two methods available: progressive and blended.

Chamfer modifier - Chamfering now supports quad intersection to control how corners are affected when multiple edges connect to the same vertex. Also applies to the Edit Poly Chamfer tool.

What's new in Autodesk 3ds Max 2017.1?

Blended Box Map

The Blended Box map allows you to project maps onto objects in a much simpler way than the traditional method requiring complex UV mapping. It is ideal for situations where you want to apply a box map across one more objects to map them from all sides, such as applying details like dirt or grime. Working similarly to box mapping, Blended Box map projects images from three 90° directions. You can project one, three, or 6 different maps for every side of the projection box. A key difference between the two mapping types is blending. Traditional box or cube mapping creates hard seams between the different UV projections, where Blended Box map gives you the ability to blend between the maps for a more seamless result.

Data Channel Modifier

The Data Channel modifier is a new tool for automating complex modelling operations. By piping mesh data through a series of controls known as operators, you can achieve a huge variety of effects that dynamically update as you make changes.

The Data Channel modifier can be useful for automating such tricky operations as blending materials based on different states, creating deformations based on an output, or dynamically copying data between channels for storage. In addition, data can be visualized directly in the viewport as gradients of color.

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